The
Ultimate Guide to Calling and Decoying Waterfowl: Tips and Tactics for
Hunting Ducks and Geeseby Monte Burch
Paperback from The Lyons PressISBN: 1592285236The sport of hunting ducks and
geese is alive and quite well in North America, thanks in large part to
a resurgence of waterfowl numbers, which, in turn, can be traced to conservation
groups such as Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, Inc., as well as to
sportsmen who impose limits on themselves far stricter than those issued
by the law.
Assembling the gear, fixing the decoys, working with the Labs and Chesapeakes,
caring for the firearms, fixing the blinds or duck boats, and always looking
for more hotspots to hunt, waterfowlers are a breed unto themselves.
In these pages, read how to become adept at all aspects of duck and
goose hunting-how to set the decoys in various conditions, how to call
for the various species at different times of the year, how to get out
there on the marsh or grain field and collect birds.

Misery
Loves Company: Waterfowling and the Relentless Pursuit of Self-Abuseby Bill Buckley
Hardcover from Ducks Unlimited, Inc.ISBN: 0961727985This book takes a fun-filled
look at the foibles, follies, pratfalls, and unpredictable world of the
duck hunter, from the time his alarm rings at 3:00 a.m. until he stumbles
into freezing marsh water two hours later, swamping his waders but not
dampening his enthusiasm for the sport. Why do duck hunters do it? Sit
in driving rain for hours awaiting ducks that may never come? Shiver in
freezing boats and blinds in the most inaccessible, not to mention inhospitable,
environs imaginable?
Author-photographer Bill Buckley writes about these magic moments with
humor and verve, but it is his brilliant color photographs that steal the
show. The hapless hunter who watches helplessly as his partner's Suburban
backs out of the driveway-and over the gun case that holds his favorite
shotgun. Click! The faithful retriever that elegantly lifts its leg and
makes a sop of the hunter's blind bag. Click! And the pained expressions
on the faces of duck hunters caught in the act of "enjoying" their favorite
sport. Click.
Waterfowlers who sometimes question their own sanity can now take heart.
"It's all right," Buckley writes, "if you like standing in swamp muck for
hours on end. It's okay if your family thinks you're weird. Who cares if
your girlfriend diagnoses you as obsessive-compulsive or sadomasochistic?
The important thing is, you're not alone."

Covers preseason scouting, how and where to place a blind, use of decoys
and calls

Identifies and corrects common mistakes made when placing and setting up
blinds and decoys, timing the hunt, and waiting for waterfowl

This engaging guide covers all the how-to's of hunting waterfowl,
including more advanced techniques like river hunting, flooded timber shooting,
and prairie shooting. As managed areas become a fact of life for waterfowlers,
Smith's advice on how to work within these systems is increasingly useful,
as is his emphasis on the importance of hunting with dogs to maximize success
ratios and minimize the likelihood of cripples.

This is a comprehensive guide to hunting mallards, wood ducks, wigeon,
teal, pintails, and other dabbling ducks. Never has another book offered
more details on dabbler hunting tactics, including: *Methods for hunting
dabblers over decoys in marshes, flooded timber, agricultural fields, rivers,
and small and big lakes *Strategies for pass shooting, jump shooting, and
float hunting *Tactics for early- and late-season hunting *Advice on how
to hunt public areas *And much, much more In-depth chapters cover how to
call dabblers; how to set up the most effective decoy spreads for a wide
variety of situations; how, and where, to set up duck blinds; and how to
scout and locate the best hunting spots. A chapter on shotgunning recommends
which gauges, actions, chokes, and loads to use for various species and
types of hunting, and includes tips for becoming a good duck shot. There's
even a chapter on how to plan a duck-hunting trip, complete with information
on the top ten dabbler hunting destinations in the United States and Canada.
Like author Wade Bourne's first Duck Unlimited guidebook, Decoys and Proven
Methods for Using Them, this one is chockfull of enough new and detailed
information to make it an invaluable resource for the novice and veteran
duck hunter alike.

A superb collection of waterfowling and wildfowling tales from a well
known waterfowler. It covers duck hunting and goose shooting in Britain,
America and Canada and deserves a place at every goose and duck hunter's
bedside. Second enlarged edition.

In this follow up to his best-selling book Don't Shoot the Decoys,
author Doug Larsen offers more humorous observations on the sport of waterfowling.
The book begins with a hilarious "Open Letter to the Duck Gods," in which
Larsen wonders aloud about what he has done to deserve the wrath of the
duck hunting deities, which have obviously conspired against him to ruin
his hunting season, his physical and mental health, and his family life.
"Three weeks into the season," he writes, "with only two weeks left to
go. Everything seems to be going against me, and I wouldn't know a limit
of ducks if I tripped over one."
From there Larsen lets his duck hunting fancy take flights that are
sure to tickle the funny bones of waterfowlers everywhere. These include
ruminations on why there aren't any duck hunting movies (in the story "Black
Duck Down"), a duck hunt with two sharp-shooting and keen-witted little
old ladies in the Louisiana bayou (in "A Duck for Gumbo"), a chapter devoted
to, of all things, "Coot Tactics," and seventeen other new and original
stories of "waterfowling obsession." Indeed, what was said when Larsen
published his first book is even more apt with the publication of his second:
"If Gordon MacQuarrie is the voice of the old duck hunters, then Doug Larsen
is the voice of the new."

Waterfowl
Hunting: Ducks and Geese of North America (The Complete Hunter)by Nick Smith
Hardcover from Creative Publishing internationalISBN: 1589232372Each year more than 4 million
hunters pursue waterfowl species in North America alone. This basic outdoor
reference for hunters covers bird identification and actual hunting strategies
for 27 major species of puddle ducks, diving ducks, and geese. The author
also discusses several different styles of hunting waterfowl-from the water
and from land-plus different kinds of blinds and their relative usefulness
in various habitats.

How-to information on calling and decoying is covered in detail, including
decoy placement strategies and all the popular patterns. Both US and Canadian
species and hunting opportunities are discussed. Includes index.

By
Dawn's Early Lightby E. Donnall Jr. Thomas
Book Description: "Hunts are best measured by the endurance
of the memories they produce," E. Donnall Thomas Jr. writes in this, his
first collection of waterfowling essays. He might have added that good
books are likewise measured by how vivid, and how long, they remain in
the mind of the reader. By Dawn's Early Light is a book that will stay
with you long after you have read it. Though he has pursued big game, upland
birds, and a variety of fish all over the world, Thomas reserves a special
place in his heart for duck and goose hunting, That's because waterfowling
is to him a uniquely American sport. A sport of home and hearth, of memories
made even more poignant by the knowledge that the first light of dawn is
fleeting and will not last. Thomas captures these moments so well that
his memories become ours.
Hardcover from Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Don't
Shoot the Decoys: Original Stories of Waterfowling Obsessionby Doug Larsen
Book Description: Waterfowlers may be passionate-even obsessive-about
their sport, but at least they don't take themselves too seriously. That's
because duck and goose hunting is so often a humbling experience. In that
respect, these 20 stories by Doug Larson are like the classic wildfowl
tales of, say, Gordon MacQuarrie-that is, they celebrate the sport of waterfowling
while tickling the funny bone. But while Larson is in many ways a traditionalist
when it comes to waterfowling-and storytelling-his voice is refreshingly
new. Larson's subject, in fact, is the modern hunter's struggle to come
to terms with the past while living fully in the present. For instance,
while he expresses a love for the hardy duck chasers in canvas coats who
humped dozens of cork decoys through mud and mire to secret blinds, he
also admits "adapting" to the comforts and conveniences of four-wheel ATVs,
portable blind heaters, hollow-body plastic decoys, and polyester "fleece"
parkas. On the other hand, he takes pokes at the modern trend to overcomplicate
the sport. "Whatever happened to throwing rocks?" he asks in a chapter
on motion decoys. Though the book finds humor in the "small" moments associated
with duck and goose hunting, it occasionally delivers a real zinger that
will bring tears to the reader's eyes, as in the hilarious chapter titled
"Concrete," in which Larsen discovers what can happen when a son takes
his non-hunting dad waterfowling for the first time.
Hardcover from Ducks Unlimited, Inc.